Future for iPad Looks Great but Andriod-based Tablet May Take Some Market Share

I have covered a number of the Retrevo studies here. One of their latest studies looked at the iPad and the mobile market. They asked consumers what would prevent them from buying an iPad, of those who don't already own one or plan on buying one, the most common answer was don't need one (53%), followed by "too expensive" (38%) While 10% where looking for a good excuse to buy the iPad When we looked at the iPhone owners in that group we found only 26% of those thought they didn't "need" an iPad. This predicts a robust market.

There was also interest in Google’s Android. They asked people interested in buying an a tablet, "What would make you buy an Android-based tablet over an iPad?" They found that 53% said they would get the Android-based tablet, "If it was less expensive than the iPad." Also, 33% said they would get the Android-based tablet, "If Verizon was the carrier" And 28% say they'd get the Android-based tablet, "If it was discounted as part of a subscription service (like a cell phone contract)." In addition, 22% said they would d get the Android-based tablet, "for other reasons” while 16% said they would still buy an iPad, regardless.

Many people seem to like multiple gadgets (see New York Times article, Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price). Retreveo founds that e-Readers and iPads will co-exist nicely in the gadget world as they found a significant number (40%) of consumers who own or plan to own an e-Reader also plan to buy an iPad this year.   We are looking into creating an iPad app for the Darwin Ecosystem’s Awareness Engine and are encouraged by these findings.